2025 Annual Conference: Human Resources

Making Work Your Organization’s Most Irresistible Product

Dart Lindsley, CEO of 11fold, former advisor to Google’s People Experience function, and Author of HBR Reimagining Work as a Product

Join Dart Lindsley—host of the Work for Humans podcast and architect of the “work-as-product” philosophy—for a provocative look at how the best leaders design jobs the way innovators design breakthrough products. Drawing on his HBR spotlight article and dozens of podcast conversations with CEOs, behavioral scientists, and design thinkers, Dart reframes employees as customers who decide every day whether to “buy” the jobs your company offers. When leaders treat work as a product people love, engagement soars, attrition plummets, and the business wins.

Join to discover:

• The “jobs-to-be-done” of work – how to uncover the hidden outcomes employees hire their roles to deliver, well beyond pay and purpose.
• Product-design tools for HR – from journey mapping to rapid prototyping, learn the methods Google, Dropbox, and Shopify use to iterate irresistible work experiences.
• Proof that it pays off – why only 23 % of employees are engaged today, and how a product mindset converts disengagement into discretionary effort and retention.

Expect fresh research, compelling stories, and actionable take-aways that will equip you to redesign work so employees “re-subscribe” every single day.

Dart Lindsley

CEO of 11fold, former advisor to Google’s People Experience function, and Author of HBR Reimagining Work as a Product

Dart is the CEO and co-founder of the work design firm 11fold with the mission to build work that makes employees feel alive, connected to their work, and focused on what’s most important to the business. Dart has held HR leadership roles at companies world-renowned for their talent practices, including Head of Global Process Excellence for People Operations at Google. Prior to joining Google, he led the Human Resources Transformation Planning and Analysis organization at Cisco Systems.

Dart is also the co-author, with Eric Anicich, of Reimagining Work as a Product, published in the Harvard Business Review (November–December 2024). The article was featured as part of a spotlight on What Companies Get Wrong About the Employee Experience, reflecting Dart’s provocative and systems-oriented approach to rethinking the nature of work. Dart’s podcast Work for Humans routinely ranks in the top 5% of all podcasts worldwide.

Before embarking on his business career, Dart spent nearly two decades in the literary arts as a writer, editor, and university instructor. A part of him has always continued to stand slightly apart—observing business with the eye of both an artist and an outsider.

His distinctive perspective was further shaped by his work as a business architect—a discipline rooted in operations rather than human resources. Building the logical models required by business architecture allowed Dart to step back far enough to escape conventional paradigms and see organizations as they truly function.

Engineering a “Best Experience” Culture: How HR Turns Vision into Performance

Jill Gawrych, Chief Human Resources Officer, Springs Window Fashions

What if your culture were as distinctive as your products—and just as hard for competitors to copy? At Springs Window Fashions, whose vision is to create “Inspiring Spaces, Brilliantly Simple,” creating The Best Experience is the enterprise’s true superpower, which means creating the best culture for associates. Guided by seven signature behaviors—from Empowerment and Ownership to Speed—the company is translating that ethos into marketplace wins for associates, customers, stakeholders, and communities alike. Drawing on lessons from global integrations, talent reinvention, and rapid transformation, Jill makes a case that HR can—and must—be the architect of competitive advantage.

Join to discover:

• Blueprint the culture-performance link – align organizational design, leadership behaviors, and the seven cultural habits so strategy execution accelerates.
• Make metrics your North Star – use retention, on-time delivery, topline growth, and community impact as a balanced scorecard for culture health and business value.
• Scale “Best Place to Work” practices – pragmatic tactics to foster safety, inclusion, and continual career growth while meeting relentless quality and delivery targets.
• Lead through complexity – actionable coaching moves HR leaders can apply tomorrow to steer acquisitions, digital transformations, and productivity surges without sacrificing engagement.

Expect candid stories, practical frameworks, and an inside look at a company where HR engineers a culture of performance competitors can’t imitate—and employees never want to leave.

Jill Gawrych

Chief Human Resources Officer
Springs Window Fashions

Jill Gawrych brings a bold vision for HR as a driver of business performance. As Chief Human Resources Officer at Springs Window Fashions, Jill leads enterprise-wide efforts to shape culture, accelerate talent, and enable transformation. Her career spans global HR leadership roles at Regal Rexnord and Kohler Co., where she built a track record of leading through complexity—whether integrating acquisitions, reimagining talent strategies, or coaching leaders at every level. Known for her ability to connect organizational design with leadership development and change management, Jill is passionate about building thriving workplaces where people grow and businesses win. Her insights challenge HR leaders to think bigger and lead smarter in a world of rapid change.
 
 

How Is AI Redefining the Way We Work?

Adam Holton, Chief People Officer, GE HealthCare

Join Adam Holton, Chief People Officer at GE HealthCare, to explore how work is evolving and what it takes to stay ahead in a changing world.

Adam will provide an insightful look into how AI is revolutionizing the workplace. In this session, he will explore the transformative power of AI as the dominant internal force driving effectiveness, innovation, efficiency, and productivity within GE HealthCare.

Join to discover:

• How AI technologies are reshaping business processes, enhancing decision-making, and fostering a culture of continuous improvement.
• The strategies and leading practices for integrating AI into your organization to stay ahead in the rapidly evolving business landscape.
• Real-world examples and engage in thought-provoking discussions on the future of work.

Adam Holton

Chief People Officer
GE HealthCare

Adam Holton is Chief People Officer for GE HealthCare, responsible for providing strategy and leadership for GE HealthCare’s Human Resources (HR) team. He joined GE HealthCare as Chief People Officer in June 2024.

Adam brings more than 20 years of HR leadership experience to the role, having led HR at multiple companies and built deep, global, publicly traded company experience. Throughout his roles, he has worked on transformative efforts and large-scale projects that have driven business growth across industries, with the depth of that experience in healthcare.

Prior to joining GE HealthCare, Adam was Chief People Officer at Amedisys, a home health company where he led the HR, Communications, and Marketing functions. Before Amedisys, he served as Chief Human Resources Officer at both Numotion and CHS, Inc. He also held HR leadership roles with USAA and Bank One. Earlier in his career, he held different HR and organizational design leadership positions over roughly 11 years at GE HealthCare and GE corporate.

Turn Connections into Momentum

Andreas Hoffbauer, PhD, Founder and Director, Atelier Kultur

Modern work is powered by the relationships that carry information, enable collaboration, and speed—or stall—decisions. As a sociologist-turned-strategist, Andreas Hoffbauer blends data science with human dynamics to help leaders surface and re-wire those connections so their organizations can move faster, bridge silos, and unlock discretionary effort. His research and client work show that mis-aligned relationship structures are the hidden root cause behind slow execution, disengagement, and failed transformations—and that intentional, well-placed connections can turn those liabilities into competitive momentum.

Join to discover:

• Map the hidden network – rapid, low-friction techniques to spot super-connectors, bottlenecks, and untapped white space so you know where to intervene first.
• Design the moments that matter – a playbook for reshaping interactions during strategy pivots, re-orgs, or M&A so information flows to the teams that need it most.
• Equip every employee to connect with purpose – practical routines and up-skilling tools that help people at all levels build the relationships that fuel performance and well-being.
• Prove the ROI of connection – simple metrics that link network health to decision speed, innovation, and retention, giving executives a clear case for continued investment.

Expect fresh analytics, compelling stories, and actionable take-aways you can put to work the very next day—so your people’s connections create unstoppable momentum.

Andreas Hoffbauer, PhD

Founder and Director
Atelier Kultur

Andreas Hoffbauer helps organizations unlock the power of connection to drive better, faster decision-making. As the founder of Atelier Kultur, a people analytics advisory based in New York City, Andreas brings cutting-edge organizational network analysis to global companies seeking to align their workforce with strategic outcomes.

A sociologist by training and strategist by practice, he blends data science with human dynamics to reveal how relationships shape performance. His work challenges leaders to rethink workforce development not just as a talent initiative, but as an enterprise capability. With a PhD in Organizational Sociology and research experience at Columbia University, Andreas delivers fresh insights into how modern work actually works—and how to design for it.